Cii.ENTo — Artificiai.i Y DisTORTEn Skuli.s 331 



The natives liuild tliemsehes fnniiidahle war canoes 50 to 60 feet \oiig. and 

 the powerfid men that man them are armed with 6-foot bows, and send the 

 poisoned arrows true to the mark at 80 yards. They cultivate the soil for 

 \ams, taros, and sweet potatoes. Tn former years they attacked a man-of-war 

 when becalmed near the island and were with difficulty dri^•en off. They have 

 always l)een an asjg'ressive people." .\nimal ferocity. howe"i'er. can be 

 advanced cpiite as well as an e\idence of degeneration, as of intellect, and 

 man\- writers entire! \' disagree with the common opinion. 



(ira\- (^) from personal experience says: "As a general thing the tribes 

 that ha\e followed the practice of flattening the skull are inferior in intellect, 

 less striving and enter]irising in their habits, and far more degraded in their 

 morals than other tribes," while Domenech (■'), supported by Cox (•^). 

 Thornton f-"'). Strickland P-''), Townsend (^^). and others, affirms that flat- 

 heads are more subject to aj^oplexv than others. k""o\-ilIe ("), dealing with 

 the French districts, declares th.at not onh- cranial irregularities of all tyj>es 

 but also epilep.sy, idocy, and insanity, were exceedingly frequent. 



Persona] observation of a few cases has led the writer to the conclusion 

 that the ])ower of ci mcentratirni. attentirin. and the sense of responsibility are 

 deficient in natives so treated, and a high rate of epileps\- may explain the 

 great esteem in -which the nati\"es in manv areas hold the associated practice 

 of trephining. It is freelv admitted that obserxations on these points were 

 till) meaqre and haphazard to justify a general deduction. 



The cranial peculiarities now to be dealt with, however, are more ci in- 

 stant and more easily demonstrable. 



The Registration Numbers are those of the South Australian Museum. 



SPECIMEN 1. 



Plates x.xxv and xxwi. and Fig. 57. 



.Skull. Adult, ael. c. -'5. Hy[>si-steno-dolichnce]ilialus artificialis. 



i 'ri ignatlious, ineso'^enie-nK-gaseme, lepturrhine, dolichuranic. 



Capacity — 1340 cc. 



Papuo-melanesian: .\blinghi. S. Coast New Britain. Reg. .\. iM-.S- (Coll. 



Captain G. W. ATo.styn.) 



This is a magnificent specimen of the tx'pical "pinhead" skull. 



From in front one is struck b\' the long horizontally extended outline, while 

 from above the skull has the form of an exceedingly narrow ellipsoid. The 

 frontal bone is greatly flattened and obliquely receding; concavo-convex from 



